A Summer To Remember
by Islanda
Summary: Maya has been going to camp every summer for as long as she can remember. Even after her mother's death, Maya still goes in hopes of having fun. She never anticipated the return of Campbell Saunders, her old crush from a few summers ago. Everything with him was so perfect yet so complicated at the same time. Campbell's back, but he's changed and isn't the same person as before. AU
1. 1

So this is something I've been working on for awhile. The summary pretty much explains it all. Most of the people at camp will be Degrassi people, the people from Maya's home life will be mainly secondary characters. I have a lot of this story already written up in a notebook, so I just have to type it up so updates shouldn't take too long. I'm really busy with exams now but I'll try to have an update out every 2 weeks atleast.

Summary: Maya has been going to camp every summer for as long as she can remember. Even after her mother's death, Maya still goes in hopes of having fun. She never anticipated the return of Campbell Saunders, her old crush from a few summers ago. Everything with him was so perfect yet so complicated at the same time. Campbell's back, but he's changed and isn't the same person as before.

So in this alternate universe Cam is still alive and Adam is still alive. It takes place during the summer before Maya's sophomore year, so basically just this past summer.

So this chapter is more of an introductory chapter, but I hope you enjoy! I don't own anything.

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The long drive up to Silver Lake Camp at the end of June always seemed so long. I would sit in the backseat with my sister in silence for 3 hours, listening to my iPod nano while my parents talked to each other in the front seat as we drove down the boring two lane highway that seemed to never end. This year, the ride was abnormally shorter. My sister, Katie wasn't coming to camp this year, and my mom was no longer with us.

This time last year, everything was normal. I was on my way up to camp for the summer. It was my last summer as a camper and Katie's first summer as a counselor. We had been coming to this place every year as soon as we were old enough. Summer at camp is all I've known for as long as I can remember. Katie and I have never missed a summer. Now 18 and going into her first year in college, Katie needed to stay home and work fulltime. I knew deep down that she just couldn't come back here. There were too many sour memories.

My whole freshman year was a blur to me. Everything started out normally. Everything was perfect. Things were going great until that one gloomy day in October when we came home to find my parents waiting for us in the living room to drop the bad news. They never came home from work until atleast 5:30, so I knew right away that something was up. I sat down on the couch beside Katie after taking off my raincoat, and then they told us. My mom had cancer. She had been going through treatment all summer, but nothing was working. The illness had soon spread from her breast and had made its way into her lungs. By Christmas, the cancer had spread to her brain and we all knew that it was only a matter of time. My mom died the week before Easter, and everything changed after that. I told my two best friends, Taylor and Noelle, but that was it. They were at my house frequently when my mom was sick, so they knew everything already. Katie didn't tell any of her school friends. She was never super close with anyone at our high school. She told her other friends though, the important ones.

Camp ran almost all summer long. It began the last weekend of June right after school was out, and ran for 8 weeks, ending just in time for everyone to have a week to prepare for going back to school. Usually, we took a family holiday that week and went camping. That wasn't happening this year though. I even thought about staying home from camp this year, feeling guilty about leaving my dad after we had just lost mom.

"You've been going to camp forever, Maya," he told me at the beginning of May when forms were due. "Camp next year is all you talk about at the end of August. There's no way you're staying home."

"But what about mom?" I asked before my dad had a chance to say anything else.

"Even with mom gone, your life has to carry on sweetie. You can't stop doing the things you love," he told me. "We all have to move on."

As much as his words hurt in a way, I knew he was right. That's what I loved about dad. Even though him and mom had been together since college, he still had the strength to carry on after her death. He still managed to be a good parent during the whole thing. He did have some trouble with Katie and still did, but my dad and I got along great. He was my rock. I still looked at him as my hero like I did as a child after losing mom. He was all I had left, and the way he managed to maintain a positive outlook on life throughout this whole thing amazed me.

"I know mom would want you to go to camp," my dad added with a smile. "She would want you to be happy." With that, I had sent my forms in.

Over the summer, I knew that I was going to miss Taylor and Noelle like crazy; I would definitely miss them more than normal. I promised them that I would write over the summer, but the three of us secretly knew that wasn't going to happen. Camp kept you really busy, and there wasn't too much down time. This summer would be especially hard without them. They were always there as a shoulder to cry on when I missed my mom. Some days I was okay, like nothing had ever happened. Then I had those times when I just missed her so much and couldn't stop crying. They were always there, no matter what.

Then there was dad. He was the only one who truly understood how hard it was. Katie was there, but she was wrapped up in her own problems. Taylor and Noelle were there, but they never understood the pain I was going through because they had never lost someone so close to them.

Even as we turned onto the two lane dirt road that camp was on, I still regretted my decision to come back here in the first place. As I sat next to my dad in the front seat, I turned my head to talk to him for one of the first times the whole ride.

"Dad, you're sure you want me to go?" I asked, the words coming out of my mouth slowly.

"Of course," he replied without hesitation. "You know how much I'm going to miss you kiddo," dad added. "You've had a long year though, and you need to be here having fun, okay?"

Dad said nothing else, and I turned my head to look out the window for the small remainder of the ride until the car slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road to drop me off.

I sat in the car in silence as my dad opened the trunk to take out my suitcases. Camp only did a wash every two weeks, so I had to bring a lot of clothes. Even though I technically only needed roughly 15 days worth of clothes for camp, I had always brought more the past couple of years. I've always been one of those crazy over packers. I would much rather have more clothes than I needed than not enough. I was scared that I would run down to such a small selection of clothes to the point that I would have minimal choices of what to wear; and what if I didn't want to wear any of those? I would be screwed. Having so many options of clothing made me feel more at home too, it would help me this year especially. I had a lot of clothes at home, and they were part of me. All the money I made delivering papers often went towards my clothes. My clothes were certainly not top notch fashionista clothes, but they were perfect for me, and I took pride I them.

Before long, I heard my dad tapping on my window.

"Maya, come on!" My dad said enthusiastically as he opened the car door for me. I reluctantly stepped out of the car, looking around camp.

It looked no different than last summer or the summer before, but it was empty. I'm 14 now, turning 15 in December, which meant that I was no longer a camper. Because of my late birthday I could have been, but anyone turning 15 by the end of the year qualified to be a CIT, so I chose to do that. All the staff and CITs arrived a day before camp began to get everything organized before the campers arrived. Campers ranged from the age of 6-14; CITs were 15 and 16, and once you were 17 or older, you were eligible to be a counselor or staff. Don't get me wrong, I was definitely excited about being a CIT. Being a CIT was just the awkward in between stage. You were too old to be a camper so you didn't pay to be here, but you weren't old enough to get paid. You were too old to participate in many activities, but you weren't old enough to run them. CITs were there to help out, and I was excited. At the same time though, I knew that I would have responsibilities this year and camp wouldn't quite be the same as before.

The thing I was most excited about today were the group assignments. Every year, each cabin would have 2 counselors, 2 CITs and 10-14 campers. Once you got all acquainted with your cabin, it would be split in two. You would still have cabin time with them, but the majority of activities were done in groups. Groups were made up of one counselor and one CIT from each cabin who were then paired up with another counselor and CIT from a different cabin. The campers in each cabin were then divided in half. A bunch of people hated the groups for when they got split up from their friends in their cabin, but I've always liked it because the groups let you get to know other campers easily. Unless you had a shitty group, then you were screwed.

I remember last year, my group sucked. My group counselors were Mia and Leia, and as much as they tried to put on an act, it was obvious that they did not get along. We were also an all girl group. All girl groups were useful for a good heart to heart, but they got boring after awhile. They could also create drama, which ours did. At camp, the juniors, intermediates and seniors were separated when it came to groups, since it was unlikely that a 7 year old would find common ground with a 13 year old. Juniors were 6-8, intermediates were 9-11 and seniors were 12-14. I secretly hoped for a group of intermediate campers. They were by far the easiest to work with, and it was easy to entertain them.

My dad looked at me with a smile as he unloaded my last bag from the trunk.

"You ready, kiddo?" He asked me.

I sighed, looking around camp. I smiled for the first time. I felt really excited looking around. It was summer. I'm here at camp, my favorite place in the world. I would never know if it was the right choice for me to come here this year, but I knew that I would make the best of my time here.

"Ready!" I said enthusiastically as I followed my dad into the lodge.

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Sorry about the abrupt ending, I was trying to find a good place to cut off. What did you guys think? A lot of the characters will be introduced in the next couple of chapters. I'll try to get an update out as soon as possible, depending on the feedback I get from this :P Thanks for reading though! Reviews are highly appreciated! And if you have any questions about the story let me know.

~Lauren


	2. 2

I'm so sorry for the long update. I've been so busy with Christmas and New Years, and I was also away on the weekend. I meant to get this chapter out before Christmas so I'm sorry

And thank you so much Guest and Katie and msleahbeah3236 for your reviews and all your kind words. Thank you all so much, you have no idea how much it means to me! I hope you all enjoy this chapter

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The lodge was where everything important at camp happened. Well, almost everything important. The lodge was where all the registration took place the first couple of days while all the campers and staff arrived. We ate in the lodge, did activities in the lodge during thunderstorms and slept there if it rained during a campout. The numerous tables that were usually connected for groups to eat at were either folded up to save room or were placed in the large rectangle that had all the stations set up for camper registration. There were usually many of the program staff manning the tables on the day that campers arrived, but I was surprised to see only two people sitting at a single table as my dad and I walked inside, not another soul in sight. I wasn't used to this.

I immediately recognized the two people sitting at the front desk. There was a girl, Anya MacPherson. She was a counselor, and she was super sweet. She was beautiful and almost all of the younger guys had a thing for her. She was never a camper here, but she was a CIT. Anya was one of the best counselors here. She always counseled juniors as she was very patient and good with younger kids. Almost anyone would want Anya as their counselor though. She was pretty amazing. Next to Anya was Dave Turner. I didn't know much about him, but he was pretty goofy and fun to be around. He was a counselor for the first time this year, and I could remember him being a big part of leading some of the games that the CITs organized the past couple of years.

Anya smiled as my dad and I walked up.

"Maya!" She exclaimed, standing up to hug me. I inhaled her sweet, fruity scent as she hugged me. "Is it true that Katie isn't coming up this year?" Anya asked as she released me from her grip. "I didn't see her name on the sign in list!"

"Yeah," I replied, sadness in my voice. "She's has to work full time this summer before she goes off to school."

"Ah," Anya replied, sounding disappointed. She was only a year ahead of Katie, and they were CITs together a couple of years ago so I figured they were friends. Anya knew that camp didn't pay you too much, only about 270 a week, but she also knew why else Katie didn't want to come back this year. "Well, let's get you checked in!" She said, flipping through a bunch of pages, quickly changing the subject. Next to her, Dave pulled out another form and handed it to my dad.

"This is the health form here," he explained. "All the info from last year is still there, so just fill out the changes if there are any," Dave told my father and I presenting the form with a smile.

My dad and I worked together through the forms for the next couple of minutes, filling out all the necessary information. We handed Dave and Anya the forms back a few minutes later.

"You can leave all your bags by the big tree," Dave told us. "If you wanna head down to the field, everyone's there playing some warm up games until everyone gets here."

My dad and I smiled our thanks, and made our way out of the lodge. I sighed. I knew that it was time to say goodbye to my dad. It was a moment that I'd been dreading all day. I was really excited for camp and everything, but I knew that I was going to miss my dad like crazy.

"Maya, you're going to have an amazing summer," my dad told me as we finally reached the car. "I know it's been a rough year, but try and have fun sweetie." My dad picked me up and pulled me into a hug as I forced myself to smile. Even though I wasn't a kid anymore, he would always pick me up and hug me whenever we said goodbye to each other.

"I'll try to, dad," I replied.

"I'm going to try and write to you every week, okay?" My dad told me with a smirk. "Not that I'll expect a response that often!" He joked.

I sighed. It was a running joke with my family. Ever since I was little, I had begged my parents to write me letters over the summer. Letters and email were the only way parents could contact their children, and even after email became the new thing, my parents still chose to write letters. I always promised to reply, but camp had me so busy in the summer that I had almost always forgotten. I would write the odd letter or two, but I promised myself that I would write my dad a lot more than usual. We had grown a lot closer, and replying to his letter seemed so much more important this year than any other year before.

"I love you kiddo," dad said with a smile as he stepped into the car. I kept looking at him as he rolled the window down to wave goodbye, just like I was little again.

"Bye dad," I said, almost whispering as the car started to move and drive away. I saw my dad's hand wave to me out the window as he pulled onto the road. I watched the car as it continued to drive away. I stood frozen in place even after my car was out of sight. I forced myself not to cry, and tried to think about how happy I was to finally be here. It's camp. My favorite place in the world. I kept repeating happy thoughts to myself as I made my way down to the field.

The field was basically the main activity area at camp. All the large group activities happened there, and it was the meeting point before group activities began. The lodge was at the top of the hill. There were stairs that led down to the field in the middle of the short but relatively steep hill. I saw two circles of people in the field quickly break apart as Emma Nelson, the CIT director this year, began to call out who was in which cabin. The program staff began to disperse and head into the Staff House to relax. I felt many eyes on me as I made my way down to the field.

There were many faces that I recognized, yet there were some new CITs every year like there always were. Silver Lake Camp gave you way more than the required amount of volunteer hours needed to graduate high school, and many teenagers who came just for the volunteer hours came back the next summer because they enjoyed camp so much. I smiled at Adam Torres as I walked up to the large group of people. Him and his brother, Drew, had come two years ago for the first time, both as CITs. They came for their volunteer hours more than anything else, but were an example of people enjoying themselves so much that they kept coming back. They were both counselors now.

"Maya," Drew said with a smile as I approached them. "Hey," he added, looking down at the ground awkwardly.

Katie had dated Drew Torres two summers ago when him and Adam had first come to camp. He was a nice guy, but he had fucked up. He was one of the main things that had triggered Katie to start changing. The eating disorder had started shortly after their break up, and Katie blamed Drew for everything. I wasn't particularly fond of the guy, but I wasn't going to hold anything against him for stuff that had happened years ago that had nothing to do with me directly.

"Hey Drew, Adam," I said cheerfully, nodding at Adam who stood beside his brother. "What's going on here?" I asked, trying to make conversation, even though I had it basically figured out already.

"We were just playing one of those stupid name games," Adam explained, rolling his eyes. "We were just in two circles doing the get to know you games. The always do them until a lot of people get here. Now Emma's giving us our cabin cos," the boy added with a smile.

"What about our group cos?" I asked curiously. Finding out your cabin information was fun, but you spent most of your time with your group, so that one always mattered more to most people.

"That's not until the staff meeting later today," Drew replied, looking at me with a smirk, understanding how disappointed I would be. I smiled and nodded in response. I didn't know what else to say to the Torres brothers, so I stood in silence as I waited for Emma to call my name.

Emma Nelson was the new CIT director this year. Emma was previously a counselor, and I had always liked her. She was nice and patient with everyone, and she was well known at camp since her stepfather, Snake, was the head director and had been for as long as I can remember. When I heard that Emma was taking over as the CIT director this year, I was really excited. Rachel, the old CIT director was alright, but I had high hopes for Emma.

"Cabin 4!" Emma exclaimed, interrupting my thoughts. "Counselors will be Anya MacPherson and Jenna Middleton, CITs will be Zoe Rivas and Maya Matlin!" I looked over and saw Jenna Middleton flash me a small smile across the field as we made eye contact. Everyone knew who Jenna was. She was the one who had the baby a while ago. She had the baby in March, so no one really saw her while she was pregnant, but everyone at camp knew about it because she had announced it while she was on some reality TV show.

Zoe Rivas was part of the group of girls I tried to avoid at camp. It wasn't that we were enemies; we were just never friends. I didn't know much about her, but I knew that she was known for trying to start drama with people, and for always being attached to a guy for almost the whole summer.

And then there was Anya. I was so happy that Anya was one of my counselors. I know it sounds corny, but I kind of look up to her. She's just so good and patient, and I was beyond excited to be one of her CITs. Anya just looked like she always had so much fun at camp. She was always smiling.

"Maya, right?" I turned around and saw Zoe standing in front of me, gathering her bags.

"Um, yeah," I stammered, smiling at the pretty brunette. She smiled back at me. I was surprised. I always thought that she was kind of a bitch, but she seemed nice to far.

"Well I guess we'll be cabin cos," she said, smiling again. "Do you want to head up to the cabin?"

"Yeah, sure!" I exclaimed. I ran over to the tree where I had left my stuff. Zoe followed me and we began our walk up to cabin 4 together. I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy this summer, but so far, it seemed pretty promising. And that was good.

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Okay so I know Zoe seems a little OOC here, but the way the show portrays her makes her look like a crazy bitch, and the only reason she hates Maya so much is because they liked the same guy. So in this story, Zoe will still be Zoe, her and Maya will just get along a bit better.

And again, sorry for the long update. The next one will not take as long, I promise! And there will be more action, I promise ;P

~Lauren


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